When the Dutch duo by Erik Bosgraaf (recorder) and Izhar Elias (guitar) commissioned me to write a new work, it was decided that the composition wouldn't use any clearly audible pitch. Therefore the result turned out to be rather noisy and particularly rhythmical. The recorder player hisses and roars into two recorder tubes, which were created from bass and tenor recorders by removing the mouthpieces and stopping the finger holes with tape. The four upper strings of the guitar are tuned to a very dissonant scordatura, and are played throughout the piece with a slide to prevent any distinguishable pitch. The two lowest strings are wound together and played in a percussive manner. In addition, both players produce many different percussive effects with their feet, hands and voices. The title Stheno refers to one of the Gorgon sisters from Greek mythology, the other two of whom were named Medusa and Euryale. The most famous ability of the Gorgons was to turn a man into stone. In this work there are a few extremely static moments when constantly changing rhythmic patterns settle and the sounds of the tape part, in a way, freeze the music. In 2007 “Stheno” was awarded with the first prize in The International Composition Competition “Irino Prize” in Tokyo, Japan. :: Tomi Räisänen, 2007